info NeoGnostic: Is CILIP virtually there?

: Name: Chris Armstrong; Location: Aberystwyth, Wales, United Kingdom

I am the owner and managing director of Information Automation Limited (IAL), a company that specialises in research, consultancy and training for the information profession. We are particularly interested in all forms of electronic information resources (e-journals, e-books, etc) and I teach a course in electronic publishing at the Department of Information Studies in Aberystwyth. Drilling down still further(!), my interests centre on the quality and evaluation of electronic information, and in the thinking that underpins activities in library and information science.

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Thursday, July 05, 2007

Is CILIP virtually there?

Well, the answer is: "Not yet"! But - following on from debates at CILIP’s bi-annual conference, Umbrella 2007, where library professionals also met online to discuss the potential value of Second Life to library services - CILIP will open an office in the Second Life virtual world on 19th July at noon. A press release today announced:

Representatives at the virtual conference were positive about the potential Second Life holds for library services, “at present Second Life really reminds me of the net in the mid-90s. It needs some time to develop as a reliable platform, but once it does, its potential is enormous!”... Future sessions on the value of Second Life to library services are planned and a virtual office for CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals will open at 12.00pm on the 19 July. Anyone with an interest in libraries on Second Life who wants to find out more should contact Rheinallt Jones on rheinallt.jones@wales.gsi.gov.uk or by searching his online name ‘Welshman Humphreys’ through Second Life.

As a CILIP Councillor, I can only applaud the initiative. CILIP is keen to be seen moving into a Web2.0 / Library2.0 age, to be a real (or virtually-real!) force for the new, knowledge economy and the new young professional. As Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library, in the opening plenary talk urged us all: ‘just go and do’.
But, on a more light-hearted note, is this a new grade of member we are talking about? Will there be new post-nominals (SLiMCLIP)? And, more importantly, if CILIP has a virtual office, who will staff it and what services will it offer?

>>Technorati tags: CILIP; SecondLife; governance